New Strava app for Apple Watch to support Series 2+

We are excited to release an updated Strava app which supports standalone recording using the built-in GPS of the Apple Watch Series 2+.

Please note: To support the GPS in the Apple Watch Series 2+, we redesigned the app to work separately from the phone. Even if your watch still connects to the GPS from your phone, the app functions independently on the watch.

If you're experiencing technical troubles installing, recording, or syncing Apple Watch activities, please contact us directly by submitting a ticket at the bottom of this post.

Comments

Question: The "Pace" is the current mile (i.e. lap) pace, correct? Seems like it, but just checking. If so, thank you...that is much more helpful than "current pace" which changes dramatically every couple of seconds.

I agree with some other posters: It is giving me way too much credit for speed. Not only is my first mile fast, every mile seems to be about 20 seconds fast...and that's pretty major. I was pretty excited the first time I used it...thought I was having a fantastic workout, but no...ran with other folks the next day and, while my watch still told me I was speedy, my friends confirmed that I am still slow.

Need to make the app on the watch lock gps signal prior allowing press start to start tracking. Start app. Wait for gps lock. Once lock allow user to hit start. This would get much better telemetry and acurrate distance!

Most important: When I track my runs, strava distance is always around 5% higher than the real distance is. I compared it with my Polar M400. Last saturday I took place in a competition which was officially measured as a 11 kilometer run. Strava recorded 11.5 km. If you are exercising and interested in your pace, that's not sufficent, you always think you are faster than you really are! :)

Other mentioned things I'd like to add too:

- Audio for laps (or at least vibro and display it)- better summary at the end would be nice- Signal if GPS Signal is ready or not before you start.

I am sure the strava team will improve that Apple Watch app in future and i am looking forward to it.For me most important is GPS accuracy and therefore correct pace.

I advise every runner in here (especially Premium users) to cancel their Strava memberships and switch to Runkeeper.

I moved to Strava last year following years of bugs not getting fixed by Runkeeper. However it appears they finally got their act together.

Runkeeper’s tethered mode appears to rely on the Watch’s GPS, because I no longer have any of the inaccuracies I used to get with my iPhone in a magnetized belt pouch close to my body.

There is also a very welcome signal strength indicator to let you know when the app’s got a GPS lock, as well as a 3-second countdown to further ensure that your starting location is correct.

My last few runs with Runkeeper have been have been spot on, in terms of distance. It’s been a very bug-free experience for me.

Among other Runkeeper features missing from Strava, haptic feedback at every mile, audio cues thanks to tethered operation, ability to enter/view up to 2 decimals, reading the running stride rate from the Watch/iPhone’s accelerometer.

It’s worth mentioning that Runkeeper has great indoor support also. They call it “Stopwatch” mode. Thanks to tethered operation, starting a “Stopwatch” activity from your iPhone also starts it on your Watch, where you can view your current duration and heart rate. For walking/running activities, this will cause Runkeeper to record your stride rate as well, even in Stopwatch mode. It’s great.

Last but not least, Runkeeper even records GPS coordinates in Stopwatch mode, just in case you forgot to return to GPS mode.

As mentioned in here a few times, I'd also recommend Cyclists switch to Cyclemeter, way more data, works with Apple Watch HR, only downside is that when you upload your rides to Strava from it, Strava makes all it's own assumption about your ride based on the GPS, e.g. it ignores a lot of stopped time, which in turn drops your pace by a couple of kms.

But regardless, its better. It's a shame that Strava has turned more into our social media app than our tracker app.

The new Apple Watch app has completely broken the key feature for cyclists. Before, you could run the Apple Watch app and know that it was measuring heart rate, while then having the iPhone app display all your stats and segments. Now? Nothing. I can understand that making the Apple Watch app standalone is a big step forward, why on earth did no-one at a company that aims it app for cyclists that many will be using their Apple Watch and iPhone in this way.

I am really disappointed as the configuration prior to this update was perfect and I was a happy premium subscriber. Now I'm looking to cancel and explore other options because this really is a very short sighted move.

Thanks for the feedback that you consider the cycling issue essential, but this is an issue for runners as well. For someone with an iPhone and an Apple Watch (original, not 2) there is currently no way to get accurate run data while also getting heart rate information. If you record on the Apple Watch, distance has a large error as the watch has no built in GPS and any interruption in the communication with the iPhone creates gaps in the track. In a recent run that I measured on both devices, the error was around 20% of the distance. If I record on the phone, I can no longer get access to heart rate information (or for that matter to any other premium features).

Right now, Strava iPhone + Apple Watch (original) is not a usable combination for any sport.

@Marc Burrows I agree. I just use Runkeeper and bit the bullet and spent a whopping $5 (suggested) on Tapiriik to auto sync to Strava. It works pretty good and transfers all data over. The big issue that doesn't seem to be resolved is that Strava shows moving time versus actual time. So RK will show the right time, but Strava will show a much faster time, so I have not heard back from the developer, but it will mess up PR's. I did a short 3mi run and had 1:30 min off total and :30 sec per mile difference. So I'm not sure how that will work over time. But so far only option if I want to keep the two in sync.

For anyone wanting to sync Strava with another fitness app, I'd recommend FitnessSyncer. It's quite configurable, with support for more ecosystems than Tapiirik. In my experience it's also far more reliable. A free account will sync your activities overnight.
Strava is great if you like the social/competitive/big data aspects of it. But for those looking for a reliable app that accurately tracks your activities, they are far behind the curve, and more expensive than most to boot.

@Phong Le I agree about RK. They still have their bugs though. Also thanks for mentioning FitnessSyncer. I forgot about that app as it was recommended by a member of Wahoo support as what they use personally. I currently am using Tapiirik and it works. However, when syncing to Strava, Strava shows less time because it only tracks moving time, which can be calculated differently. I've also been moving, but if u slow down below a threshold it does not add it.

Today I tracked with Strava and synced to RK. The data was more consistent even though it wasn't exact. Only a few seconds off on splits. Total time and distance was right, splits not so much. However, I did notice Strava sent elevation to RK, but not Strides (which RK usually tracks). Crazy thing is AW2 has no way to track this. I assume it's based on Maps, but Strava shows no elevation gain, but RK shows almost 100ft, neither which is correct. So that data is not reliable in several places. I haven't figured it out yet. Probably never will. Strava show elevation, but no gain. RK looks like I'm on a mountain, but when I go to slits where it used to show 0, but now it shows my ascent and descent, but nowhere near the 100ft it shows on the graph.

Hi @Elle, it looks like it's been well over a week since you've addressed this group, and we're all still wondering if Strava is planning to solve this tethering problem, or if we just need to look for a different app? Can you please update us on the team's plans? Is this still off the roadmap because of the 'significant engineering lift' to bring back what the team deleted? Is there any hope for just bringing the old app back as a 'classic' version? Just wondering if I should keep tracking this forum or start looking for alternatives...

There are people around here who urge you to stop paying Premium to push Strava.I am in favor of maintaining support for Strava, so far it has been the best sports app on smart phones and I am sure that with our support and feedbacks, i will make the best apple watch app. Good luck and good work!

As a very disappointed Strava Apple Watch user, i took the time trying to solve this problem.

I LOVE Strava but their App is definitely not ready and it lacks many Features.

I found a very good and even a much better alternative on the app store.

The app is * Motifit Run * and is being incredibly well developed by a team who is doing an amazing job.

In this app you have all what you wanted the Strava app to be : integrated Apple Watch GPS support, graphs, detailed Workout, GPX, TCX, CSV, FaceBook Exports... and voice support too, and of course all the usefull live datas... available for the Apple Watch, iPhone and iPad !

And this team will offer next week an update with Direct Strava Export !

Yesterday I let Strava know that I have resigned as a Premium member, for the nightmare update on the Apple Watch. Big reason to be Premium was Beacon. Especially for my relatives. Not only for my trainings but also for tracking me during my marathons. With the last AW2 update it's become useless. I also miss the voice & taptic guiding. Now I have to look at my watch every 30 seconds; unacceptable.Third reason is the unacceptable difference between the measured and real distance. Fourth is the unreliability of pausing and starting recording. Fifth is battery time. I'm afraid it won't last a whole marathon (around 4 hours for me). I am really very sorry for this, for Strava used to be my great and rewarded source for tracking and reporting my runs. Shame shame shame.

I've used the app twice now to record runs and whilst the GPS accuracy isn't as hot as the built in Fitness app, it doesn't seem to be too far out (compared to my Suunto Ambit 2). Granted they were both short runs so this will be exaggerated as the runs get longer...

My issue I now have though, is that there is no HR showing - the indicator for the HR just spins, is there something that I am not doing correctly? The AW2 is picking up the HR as I checked back in Health and you can see it has logged it. Do I need to be a Premium user for example?

The simple answer to all this. is to just develop the sync to allow Health to write to Strava rather than having a standalone app, why reinvent the wheel?? And, before I am told Apple don't allow it - there is an app titled 'Workouts' that reads from it, so it must be possible...

Ok... so I ran another run yesterday since the follow up "update" that actually announced the new watch app. I was having issues with the GPS being WAY off (like over estimating mileage and therefore making my times incredibly super fast). I also used the Strava App on my phone's GPS to compare (since my boyfriend was out of town with his Garmin that I typically use to compare) and it seems that hopefully the GPS has been fixed? My distance and time on Apple Watch 2 matched with the GPS on the iPhone and the mileage and times seemed accurate with past runs on that same route. So they either fixed this issue or I somehow got lucky this time. Here's hoping this was a fix since accurate GPS is the MOST important factor in all of this to me. Interested to know if anyone has noted improvement after this last update?

I honestly can't believe the iOS app was released in this state. I've got an AW1 and I run with my phone in my backpack.

1. You have completely removed the functionality I paid for, are you planning on refunding people?

2. The distance is varying wildly between runs covering the same distance. So the pace is out, this has ruined a lot of the segment runs I've been working hard to improve on because I've no idea if that's a true time.

3. The AW app is completely disconnected from the phone, it's actually useless for AW1 users. The NYC app lets you start the run on the phone and control via the AW app, I can't even do this with yours!

4. Take a look at the runkeeper AW app, you can select Watch or Phone + Watch on it, it works like a dream and is everything your app should be but isn't. You pride yourself on supporting the running community but you have not listened and not even sought feedback on what we want.

I still can't believe you've released this update, it's a shocking way to treat valued customers. I think you should seriously consider how to address this as you have a lot of angry customers many of which have been longer users than me.

Been a massive fan of Strava since I started running (and later cycling) over one year ago but sadly this new update means I will have to start using another app. Before the update switching the Apple Watch functionality to work independently from the iPhone everything work brilliantly (being able to start a run and hear pace updates being only some of the much appreciated features).

I fully understand why you have made this update for Apple Watch series 2 users but it feels like it has been to a great detriment to series 1 users.

Looking at this thread it looks like there are a lot of positives to focus on with the update but as selfish as it sounds I hope there can be some option to use the "classic" version for us series 1 users.

Tried the new Strava version yesterday on a run with my AW2. App crashed when I received a number of messages. I could see the time and just a black screen no matter what I did. Ultimately had to un-install/re-install to get the screen back.

After two weeks of thinking I had accidentally disabled a setting on my watch or phone, I finally found this forum. Like pretty much everyone here, I'm very disappointed with this new update. After 7+ years of being a dedicated Nike user, I switched to Strava on Jan. 1 on my coach's advice. I found it to be superior to Nike Run Club in every way but this latest update has me considering going back to Nike. I'm a first gen Apple Watch user and these "improvements" don't seem to apply to me. The lack of tethering between watch and phone, and the lack of haptic feedback on the watch is a huge issue. When I start my run with my phone I don't get watch feedback, yet starting the workout from the watch seems to produce inaccurate results. Yesterday, for instance, it cut nearly a mile off of my run and I ended up with a 10+ min./mile pace, even though my individual splits were in the 8:25-8:45 min/mile range. Additionally, it took quite a long time to sync my data post-run. This app is basically unusable as it stands right now. Please bring back the earlier version, with the tethering and haptic feedback at the completion of each mile.

Just want to add, I understand the appeal of being able to use just the AW2 and leave the phone at home or in the car but that's not really an option for me. For starters, I like to listen to music or podcasts while I run but on a more practical note, I occasionally run alone and it's just not safe, in my opinion, to run alone without a phone. So I'm carrying my phone with me, whether or not I can use just my watch to record the workout.